Come and help us celebrate the 30th Enfield Pageant of Motoring 2007! Everyone is welcome!

Now how could we refuse an offer like that! Bearing in mind that last year it was a washout and we didn't even make it onto the show grounds, this year, the forecast for the Bank Holiday Weekend was sunshine.

Everyone who was going were preparing the gear for a few days of 'outdoor living'. Bob M had the 'XR4 Register Hospitality Unit' (otherwise known as a Caravan) ready and raring. Pikey had packed his XR4x4 with the camping gear and the kids, JB had all the high tech gizmos in his car to keep the kids entertained and Bhav had all the bunting, camera gear and a few packets of Lemsip as he was just getting over the FITP rain fiasco!

The weather was looking good till late Thursday, then the forecast had suddenly changed and it was going to rain... typical!

Rain it did and it started on Friday, a day before the diehards were going to set off.. however it didn't look too bad. Sat came and things were a bit cloudy but no rain.. so far but the weather experts had a very gloomy prediction. Still, mid afternoon, Bob M had set off and was to meet Pikey and JB at the show grounds. As Bhav was working late, he decided to set off early Sunday morning.

The lads had found and marked our spot. It couldn't be that bad as they were allowed on the show grounds this year! Apparently a 'heck of a lot' of temporary road tracks was laid a few days prior, so the ground wouldn't be churned up. The report from the lads to Bhav was.. 'It hasn't stopped raining but there are a lot of clubs here'.

Sunday, Bhav & Jot set off early; it's a good job as it was hurling it down! They met up with Paul and Lindsay on the M25 and embarked to Enfield.

We found our reserved space and parked up. Not many had turned out on our stand but we still managed to muster up 5 cars. A few were due to arrive on the day but the way the weather was, it wasn't going to happen. Non stop rain and things were to get worse on the Monday! Thanks to Bob and Kirsten, we were kept warm, well watered and fed within the confines of the Hospitality Suite. At one point, every one was in the caravan as we hopelessly watched the rain beating down outside.

Having ventured out with a hooooge brolly, it was surprising to see the large lot of traders and plenty of car clubs. A strong presence to support the 30th Enfield Pageant no doubt. The free show guide was full of things that were 'supposed' to be going on, however the weather had put a dampener on that. Most of the clubs stayed in vain till mid afternoon but soon it was apparent that the rain wasn't letting up. Slowly but surely, the exodus had begun and no one could blame them.

Bhav managed to stay till 8.30pm and enough was enough..sadly he decided to abandon the sinking 'caravan' and decided to leave. It was left to the crew of the caravan to see if things got better on the Bank Holiday Monday... over to John Bell:

Sunday dinner was courtesy of the local pizza place as there was no chance of lightin a Barbie! Later that night, the wind got in on the weather act as well. Lots of gazebos gave up the fight, collapsing onto whatever was inside. Pikey's tent decided it wanted to revert to flat pack mode so he stayed in Bob's caravan for the night.

Monday morning was much of the same, windy with some rain. We went out to find that most of the site had been battered by the wind. Some of the traders were still doing business but most were packing up. The MER tent was a mangled mess and there were broken gazebos everywhere, especially in the skips around the site. We even saw members of one car club tow the remains of their Gazebo over to a skip to dump it. It's a good job the organizers marquee was still up as we managed to collect the model cars given to the exhibitors. This years model is a yellow & green Morris van in the Enfield and District Veteran Vehicle Trust livery.

Steph & Hannah had their first driving lesson around the show ground as it was virtually empty. Steph went round for a couple of miles before Hannah took over. Daniel was shocked as Hannah roared past, dump valve whooshing as she went. We're gonna have to watch her, she's got a heavy right foot, I wonder where she gets that from? John's 4be didn't look quite the same afterwards, there was even mud on the roof!

John, Pikey and the kids left by about lunch time on Monday, a quick stop off at Maccy D's for some stomach fuel before the journey home. Bob & Kirsten stayed over on Monday night and were able to get the caravan awning down in the dry, just in time as it then rained again.

Despite the weather, we definitely had a better time than staying at home. The show has been running since 1978 and has only been rained out three times. Hopefully we will have better luck next year.. don't hold your breath though.